Software development consulting is one of the most spread services in modern IT. To cut a long story short, many businesses need to integrate various software solutions; having no previous experience in software development or using SaaS solutions, companies require at least general IT consultation from niche experts.
Thus, hiring a software development consultant can help save costs and find the most suited and convenient technological solution. To clarify, let’s discuss what software development consulting is, what types of such services are, and when you need them.
What is Software Development Consulting?
As the name implies, technology consulting services are the process of advising on software development or finding ready-made solutions to integrate.
To simplify it, you hire a niche-experienced specialist and ask them to find the most suited way of integrating software in your business. It involves multiple solutions, starting with planning and maintaining software development from scratch or choosing between Software-as-a-Service solutions like various management systems, adjusting and setting them up, etc.
To cut a long story short, when you deal with software development consulting services, you must explain your budget, business needs, and goals to achieve, and the IT consultant will do the rest. The only thing that varies regarding such cooperation is defining the type of IT software consulting.
Types of Software Development Consulting Services
Despite the variety of cooperation terms with software development and consulting, it is possible to define 3 main software development consulting types:
- Technology-Specific Consulting
- Strategic Consulting
- Industry-Specific Consulting
Technology-Specific Consulting
Technology-specific software consulting services are related to choosing or improving specific technology solutions. For instance, it can involve deciding which programming language or IT infrastructure to adopt or what innovative software solutions, such as blockchain or artificial intelligence, are worth implementing.
While the first aspect is more about choosing a correct tech stack for future custom software development and scaling, the second is about the reasonability of developing or integrating new and trending solutions. For example, is it worth adopting ChatGPT, or is it better to consider its alternatives? Eventually, will such integration add value to the offered services, or will be just a fancy feature, rarely used?
To answer these questions, a technology consulting specialist will examine your business, its goals, and needs, consider your budget, and define what value desired technologies will bring to your business.
Strategic Consulting
Strategic IT software consulting services are primarily for businesses already using software solutions or considering developing or integrating them. So, strategic IT software consulting experts examine your business and used or preferred software solutions and their flexibility. By analyzing software capabilities and business needs, IT consultants can predict the potential for future software scaling and opportunities to customize it for clients' future needs.
Apart from making assumptions on whether software can be scaled or adjusted, such dedicated consultants also create a long-term plan for such software improvements: how and when the business should develop and integrate certain features or other functionality, what technologies it should use, Strategic IT consulting services are usually used far before actual development processes. Strategic software development consulting is an excellent solution for business planning that helps companies find the most efficient and convenient way to improve and scale their operations in the future.
Industry-Specific Consulting
Finally, industry-specific consulting is a niche consultation related to the business industry. Businesses mainly choose it before starting technology adoption or maintaining custom software development. This type of software development consulting explains the main aspects of needed software and defines its key features.
Software requirements vary depending on multiple factors, and industry is one of the most crucial. First of all, different industries have unique regulations and limitations. Besides, it impacts the set of basic features and security policies:
While eCommerce platforms or online banking apps clearly demand payment gateways and particular security practices to protect the personal data of users, edTech applications require options for in-app communication, file sharing, maintaining multiple users, etc.
So, when hiring a software development consulting company for industry-specific advising, you should pay more attention to the experience of potential consulting companies in your field. It is possible to find the required information on the IT vendor’s website or specific B2B platforms like Clutch, GoodFirms, or their alternatives.
When to Hire a Software Development Consultant?
Apart from paying attention to the type of software development consulting, you also should understand the conditions when you need to consider such services. For instance, you definitely require software consulting services when:
- Your internal team lacks experience in specific technologies, industries, or software-related processes.
- You need strategic guidance to plan the software design and development for further improvement and scaling
- You face complex project requirements and need to simplify them or explain their specific to the in-house team
- You want to get the most out of software development, optimize the development processes, and make it as efficient as possible.
Lack of Internal Expertise
Lack of team expertise and experience are among the most obvious reasons for choosing software development consulting services. Almost any custom software development involves pitfalls and challenges requiring particular experience and skillsets. So, custom software development consulting is a great way to deal with these issues and boost knowledge sharing.
Even a few pieces of advice can significantly upscale your development team's overall efficiency and expertise. Frankly, many scenarios do not require a full-fledged software development consultancy. Instead, even a few meetings can be just enough to clarify everything.
Need for Strategic Guidance
Strategic guidance, on the other hand, is much more complex and time-intensive. Strategic software consultants must learn business specifics, analyze a lot of data, and create a long-term plan for technology integration and implementation based on the performed analysis.
Nevertheless, such software development consulting services do not require interruptions of business processes. Moreover, apart from offering software development and consulting solutions, strategic software consultancy can highlight and identify pitfalls in business processes or logic, adding even more value to such an approach.
Complex Project Requirements
Software development and consulting services are beneficial when dealing with complex software development and project requirements. You will be surprised by how often business owners can’t find a common language with developers. They often leave too general comments and software specifications, which the development team can explain differently.
Companies that offer software development consulting services have more experience in software development. This gives them the advantage of knowing how to specify and simplify the software requirements, making them more accurate and easy to understand.
Frankly, creating clear and convenient communication between business owners and their software developers is one of the most basic yet efficient services.
Desire to Leverage Best Practices
Finally, software consulting services can also be short-term, helping to optimize various processes by integrating and explaining some of the best software development practices. Just like with improving the internal communication between various project sides, custom software development consulting specialists can suggest various lifehacks and practices,as well as set up different ongoing processes or even automate some of them.
To rephrase, one of the most essential responsibilities of software development consultancy is to define and highlight everything that can cause potential issues or what can be improved.
Moreover, software consultants always bring knowledge sharing to the table and share their experience from other projects, helping to avoid possible mistakes and make correct choices respectfully.
Choosing the Right Software Development Consulting Company
All the foregoing factors are essential and must be considered, yet the real deal-breaker is the reliability of your software development consulting vendor. So, to ensure you find the best offer and know how to define a trustworthy technology partner, we also created a small guideline on what to consider, what to ask, and how to evaluate the experience and expertise of a software development consulting company.
Factors to Consider When Selecting a Consultant
The simplest way to find and select a software consultant - is to surf the web. Nowadays, there are countless B2B platforms like Clutch and GoodFirms, where you can easily find lists of niche experts and outsourcing firms from various regions. You can also try out freelance platforms if you are willing to find a standalone expert. Still, it might be challenging to see a specialist with proven experience. Besides, you can always ask your friends or colleagues to recommend such specialists if they have used such services.
By gathering a list of exciting offers and companies, you can narrow down the number of companies to choose from. When it comes to choosing the best software development consulting offers, you should pay attention to the following:
- Proven experience and expertise can be obtained by searching and examining case studies of the potential partner.
- Feedback from previous clients lets you learn the pros and cons of cooperating with certain consulting companies.
- Ratings on B2B platforms or overall company recognition.
Still, this is just the first step in finding a required service provider. This information can only help find companies that have consulted somebody before. During the interview, a real understanding of their expertise can be achieved.
Questions to Ask Potential Consultants
The variety of possible questions for your consultants is countless. Moreover, they are highly individual, and the response must correspond with your interests. So, instead of giving you a list of questions, let’s pay more attention to the topics that must be covered.
Ideally, your interview with potential consultants should cover the following:
1) Software consultancy agents' previous experience can include the number of projects, case study reviews, the most challenging tasks they faced, etc. The most crucial aspect to pay attention to is the candidate’s confidence and accuracy.
2) Project evaluation and review by consultant. You should understand their point of view on the project, its perspectives, and how long it will take to deal with. Besides, the accuracy of project estimation and the pinpointed aspects of the project can help you to understand the experience of a software consultant, as well as predict the scale of cooperation.
3) Service price and cost estimation so that you know how they evaluate the consultation process and how much it will eventually cost.
4) A personal view of the software consultants on your project. Asking them to share their personal view on the project helps to learn more about your candidate and discover other options for your software design and development, like what else can be improved or changed.
Evaluating Consultant Expertise and Experience
Once again, to evaluate your consultant experience and expertise, you must perform your research by finding corresponding information online. You can also contact their previous clients directly, asking for extended feedback and review.
